Who Sunday: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, Russell T. Davies

One of the problems of writing Dr. Who has to be upping the stakes for every finale. “No, THIS ONE is the worst!” It’s the Buffy problem: “We have to save the world AGAIN?” The smaller episodes of good people in trouble (see “The Girl in the Fireplace”) have more warmth, I think, and often more suspense. We know the Doctor is going to save The World, but he doesn’t always save The Person (see Rose’s daddy). A lot of the emotion in this one isn’t about losing the world, it’s about Rose and the Doctor losing each other. I think every epic needs, at its center, personal crisis, one single heart in danger of being broken, or it just becomes a lot of sound and fury and big gleaming robots.